


Meet Our RED Team

by AidanFlynn



Series: Our RED Team [1]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Multi, fem engineer, fem medic, fem scout - Freeform, our team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:18:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AidanFlynn/pseuds/AidanFlynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An introduction to the members of RED team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> A special Thank You to Engie (Ashley: AO3 to be added) who very kindly Beta'd this chapter for me.

The sun was high in the sky, beating down on the desert sand with a fiery intensity. In the distance, a cloud of dust rose from the ground as a red pickup truck came into view, quickly approaching the train station where two figures stood. One of the people was fairly short, much thinner than the other, and was perched atop a large valise, staring out at the approaching vehicle. The other was very large and towered over the sitting figure, his bald head reflecting the sun, shining with sweat in the heat. The truck swerved as it reached the station, its brakes squealing in protest as it jerked to a stop. The door of the pickup opened and someone jumped out, the sand crunching under their boots as they walked towards the two now standing on the platform.

“Howdy!” the new arrival smiled, her eyes hidden behind dark glasses as she touched a hand to the brim of her cowboy hat in greeting.

The larger of the two on the platform smiled, waving a huge hand in greeting.

“Hallo.” the other managed a small smile.

“Well, I guess you two are the new arrivals, seeing as how there really couldn’t be any other reason for your being way out here.” she laughed, extending a hand. “I’m the Engineer for RED.”

“I am Heavy Weapon’s guy.” The towering Russian man shook the offered hand firmly, a broad, friendly smile on his face.

“…und I am ze Medic.” The woman shook the Engineer’s hand as well before pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

“Welcome to the RED team! We better get back to the base before it starts gettin’ dark out. It’s real hard to see a dirt road winding through the desert when there’s no light. You need a hand with any of yer luggage?” the Engineer asked, adjusting her hat a little as she looked them over.

After packing all of their belongings into the back of the pickup, the three new team members managed to pile into the cab, the large Russian having to crouch over in order to fit. The Engineer laughed a bit about this, apologizing for the inconvenience before stepping on the gas and heading back towards the base. After a few minutes of various chit-chat about obscurities, it grew quiet and the Engineer turned the radio on.

“I like dis American Rock and Roll, is very popular in Russia, has good beat.” The man laughed as the Engineer began to name off her favorite songs.

As the other two discussed music, the Medic stared out at the desert landscape, thinking about everything that transpired so far. The odd little bespectacled woman who had shown up at her door to offer her the job with RED, packing and leaving for America, arriving in New York, the long train ride to the training facility, the much shorter train ride here where she quickly befriended the hulking Russian, and now this. It had all been such a fast transition, most of the time spent traveling. Less than a week ago, she was sitting in her study in Berlin, calmly reading, and now she was headed off to a war; a very odd war from the sound of it. A running hare caught her eye, and she watched it until it disappeared in the distance.

The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, the dying rays painting the entire desert a spectrum of pinkish orange fading into purples. The two new newcomers stared in awe at this array of colors spreading across the landscape as Engineer smiled at their clearly amazed reaction.

“You’ve never seen a sunset in a desert have ya?” she laughed, “Beautiful, ain’t it? And just wait till ya see the sunrise!”

After a few moments pause, tiny lights appeared in the distance.

“There we go.” The Engineer rolled her shoulders back tiredly. “That’s the base right there, along with the BLU base. But orders are to steer clear of them for the time being.”

“They will not attack us?” the Heavy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope. Seems like they’ve got their orders too.”

A while later, they pulled up to a large wooden barricade, beyond which they could see bright floodlights. Engineer pushed a button under her steering wheel and a compartment opened on the dashboard where a screen popped up. She laughed as the two looked at her with astonishment.

“I’ve got more than a few tricks up my sleeve. This here truck is decked out in all sorts of useful contraptions!”

She poked at the screen for a few moments and the bottom of the wall in front of them began to slide out, as the ground shifted, dipping forward. A line of lights clicked on along the passage and Engineer drove the truck down the ramp and into the long passage. She poked the screen again and the ramp began to rise back up, making a horrid din as something scraped against the wall of the tunnel.

“Gotta fix that damn thing…” Engineer muttered, her cheeks turning red as if she was embarrassed by her machinery’s performance.

They drove down the long passage into a large room where there were a few other vehicles; including Medic’s little green convertible. So they had shipped her car over after all. That was something anyway.

After gathering the luggage, they took a lift that was also apparently another of Engineer’s projects, as it started to talk to them as the doors closed and she had a friendly bit of chit chat with it. When they reached the ground floor, Engineer led them both to their rooms, let them drop off their luggage, and then brought them to the team common.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” aloud voice demanded just as Engineer finished telling them about the kitchen.

Medic turned around quickly. A tall muscular man stood in front of her, an army helmet covering the top half of his face.

“Soldier, this is our Medic and Heavy Weapons Specialist.”

“Is nice to meet new team!” Heavy laughed.

“Guten Tag, Herr Soldier.” She smiled weakly, extending her hand.

The Soldier just growled angrily, ignoring the offered greeting, and turned curtly to Engineer.

“I WILL NOT TOLERATE HAVING A DAMN NAZI AND A COMMIE ON MY TEAM! NOW YOU CALL HEADQUARTERS AND TELL THEM TO SEND TRUE BLOODED AMERICANS HERE THIS INSTANT YOUNG LADY OR…”

“OR WHAT? I AM NOT YER DAMN SECRETARY! I have had it up ta HERE with ya!” Engineer threw her hand above her head in an angry exasperated gesture, “For the last damn time YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE and the sooner ya get that through that yer THICK SKULL…”

“DO NOT TALK BACK TO A SUPERIOR OFFICER MISSY, I COULD HAVE YOU COURT MARSHALLED!”

“I’D LIKE TA SEE YA TRY!” she shouted angrily.

Soldier stomped out of the room in a huff, glaring angrily at Medic (or at least she assumed so, as she couldn’t see his eyes under his helmet) and grumbling about women, Nazis, and communists. After a few moments, Engineer sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

“Well, I suppose you’ll get used to ‘im after a while. He hasn’t stopped yellin’ since we got here.”

“How long have you been here?”

“About two months. It’s taken ‘em a while to get the team together.”

Medic was surprised by this, considering the efficiency of how quickly she had gotten here after signing the papers. Engineer seemed to know what she was thinking.

“Yeah, they get us here quick enough once ya sign the papers, but they’re havin’ a hard time findin’ people to fill all the positions. Come on, lemme get ya both scanned into the Respawn.”

 


	2. New Arrivals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Scout (Samara (idk if she has an AO3 but I'm assuming yes so I'll add that later)) for being the Beta for this chapter.

She had not stopped talking since she had gotten on the train. The lanky teenaged Bostonian was currently on about one of her numerous siblings. The Australian had lost track of what exactly it was she was saying now- not because he was confused, but because he really didn’t care about what she had to say at this point. The extremely fair man sitting beside him was staring at her, but he didn’t think that he was listening either. Neither of them had said more than two words since they had gotten on the train, not that they could have gotten a word in edgewise even if they had wanted to. He was thankful that the chatterbox had not been on the longer train ride, although he would have preferred not to have the experience at all.

Two hours later they had arrived at the station, and were standing in the hot sun as the girl’s monologue continued. After a few minutes passed her pace slowed as the heat began to take its toll. It was clear that she was not used to this sort of hot climate and she began to complain about the heat just as a small cloud of dust appeared in the distance. The Australian seemed to be the only one who noticed, and kept his eyes fixed on the approaching car. The other two soon saw it as well and watched as the green convertible pulled up to them.  They all moved towards the car as the driver got out, dusting themself off before walking towards them and extending a handshake to each in turn.

“Velcome! I am ze Medic for RED.” The driver smiled at them as she helped them pack their luggage into the back of her car.

“Hey Doc! The name’s….” The chatterbox stopped, looking confused.

“Don’t vorry, zats just ze conditioning.” The Medic sighed. “You von’t remember your name.”

“Didn’t you pay attention?” the Australian growled.

“I wasn’t listenin ta half the crap they were tellin me.” She said, “I’m the Scout.”

“Vell, Scout,” the Medic smiled, “you should probably listen ven people tell you sings, often zey can be important.” 

“Yeah yeah.” The Scout rolled her eyes.

“Sniper.” The Australian tipped his hat.

“Pyrotechnician.” the quiet pale man stated.

“Sehr gut. Are you all ready? Ve should be getting back to ze base.” 

“Shotgun!” Scout yelled as she ran to the front of the car.

Medic stared at her in confusion for a moment before smiling at the other two and walking around to get in the driver’s seat. The drive back to the base was filled with the Scout’s chattering about random things while the Medic’s cheery demeanor faded, throwing death glares at the girl every few minutes. Sniper could see her shoulders tense and her knuckles turn white as her grip on the steering wheel tightened. They could see the base from here, the sun setting in the distance and turning everything to shades of orange and purple. Once they pulled up the tall walls of the compound the Scout jumped up, looking around as Medic pressed a button on her dashboard and a small screen popped up. 

“Woah! What’s that?” Scout sat back down, moving to poke the screen before Medic slapped her hand away.

“Nein. Do not touch zis. Our Engineer designed it.” Medic told her as she poked at the screen a few times.

The ground in front of them opened up, and Medic drove down into the tunnel.

“Holy shit! That’s freakin’ awesome!” Scout laughed, looking back as the door closed behind them, sliding smoothly into place.

Medic smirked, looking over at her with amusement. She pulled in next to Engineer’s red pickup truck and they all got their luggage. There was a new vehicle in the bay: Sniper’s camper. As they all got into the lift, Scout was excitedly wondering about the base and when they were going to have a skirmish. 

“Vell, from vhat Engineer has told me, ve vill be starting next veek since ve now have our full team,” she explained, smiling at them as the doors opened.

After showing them all to their rooms and bringing them to the Engineering Bay so that the Engineer could scan them into the Respawn system, she showed them the common room and the four of them stood in the kitchen as she told them their schedule for the next week.

“I am sure you are all qvite hungry after such a long day. Engineer and I vill be cooking dinner tonight in about an hour, so you can all vander around and explore ze base. You may go outside if you vish, but stay avay from ze BLU Base.” She looked pointedly at Scout “Ve vouldn’t vant anysing bad to happen to you on your first night here, now vould ve?” 

After the three newcomers had wandered off, Medic sighed tiredly and sat on the couch. After a few moments of silence, Heavy walked in and she waved him over to the couch next to her. 

“How are new teammates?” he asked.

“Ach, I do not know. Ze Pyro is very qviet, he only said two vords ze whole time. Ze Sniper is not as qviet, but he is reserved. Ze Scout however…” she sighed “…ze Scout is ze most talkative person I have ever encountered.”

“Was probably excited for new place.” Heavy offered.

“I do not know, but I hope zat she calms down.” Medic closed her eyes for a moment before beginning to speak in German _“What do you think the battles will be like?”_

Heavy answered her in Russian _“I have no idea, but I think it will be exciting, even fun, maybe. We don’t have to worry about killing, because the enemy will not die. We don’t have to worry about dying ourselves.”_

 _“Or so we hope.”_ Medic sighed, _“It will be like Valhalla, don’t you think?”_

_“Yes, Valhalla on earth. Aren’t we lucky to have that opportunity?”_

_“We’ll see.”_ Medic smiled. _“I should start on dinner preparations. I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I am sure you’re hungry as well.”_

They often had conversations like this during the month and a half they had been there, switching between the two languages occasionally since they were both better at speaking them than English. Medic was much more proficient in English than Heavy was, but sometimes it was nice to hear the familiar words, and it was easier to have in-depth discussions together.


	3. The Team at Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The entire team is finally assembled at the base, and it's time for dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Scout for Beta-ing this chapter (and for pointing out that I had accidentally overused comparing her to a dog)

Engineer soon joined her in the kitchen. They cooked dinner, idly chatting about the Respawn system, about which Medic was very interested in learning more. They were just about finished when Scout came running into the kitchen, sniffing the air hungrily.

“Aw man, that smells awesome! I am starving!” She inhaled deeply through her nose and sighed, then turned to Engineer before devolving into another of her non-stop monologues about herself.

Engineer looked over at Medic, who shrugged, rolling her eyes before taking a moment to look Scout over. The girl was much younger than her, 17 turning 18 next month by her medical records, yet she was a head taller, her dark hair pulled back loosely in a ponytail behind her as she grinned somewhat mischievously at them, talking a mile a minute. Heavy had turned and was watching this from the couch, silently laughing as Medic met his gaze and made a face as if to say ‘see what I mean?’, she turned around to grab something from the oven.

“Say why don’t cha meet Heavy over here and talk ta him while we finish up with dinner huh?” Engineer interrupted.

She half pulled, half pushed her over to the couch and introduced the two before dashing back to the kitchen and mumbling something to Medic who just shrugged and rolled her eyes. Heavy good-naturedly listened to Scout as she blabbered on, nodding occasionally and keeping her occupied so that they could finish cooking. The others wandered in as Medic and Engineer set out the food on the table. Heavy set out the plates and silverware, Scout following after him and yapping away.

Nine people now sat at the table. The complete team at last.

“Well, before we tuck in,” Engineer stated. “I’d like ta remind y’all that there’ll be a team meeting tomorrow morning at 0900 in the briefing room. Also, we have our last three members here, so let’s go ahead and introduce ourselves. I’m the team Engineer, and I am from Texas here in the US of A.” she looked pointedly at Medic.

“I am ze Medic, und I am from Germany.” She stated.

“Ah am the Demoman!” the man beside her with an eyepatch declared loudly in a thick Scottish accent, “And I’m from the highlands of Scotland! And I’m the best bloody explosives technician you’ll find anywhere!” he declared proudly.

The red suited man beside Demoman rolled his eyes.

“I am ze Spy.” He stated, straightening his suit almost as a reflex. “and I am from France.”

“I’m the Sniper, and I’m from Australia.”

“Pyrotechnician. Iceland.”

“I’m the Scout and I’m from Boston. You just wait till I get out there, I’m gonna knock so many heads off they ain’t gonna know what hit ‘em! You think you’ve seen action? I’ll give ya action! BAM!”  
 she flexed her arm, “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! I’ll run them straight into the ground, It’s gonna be friggin’ awe-“

“Ja! Danke Scout!” Medic stated loudly over her, forcing her to stop talking, “Very nice to meet you.  Herr Heavy?” she smiled at him, taking a deep breath and forcing it out of her nose in annoyance.

“I am Heavy Weapons Guy. I have big gun. Her name is Sasha. Nobody touch Sasha. I am from Russia.” Heavy smiled.

“I AM THE SOLDIER.” Soldier announced in his drill sergeant voice. “AND I AM FROM THE GREAT NATION OF AMERICA!”

“Great ta meet all of ya!” Scout smiled widely. “Can we eat now?”

Medic looked over at the new team members, quietly observing them as they began to eat. Scout had piled her plate high with food and was stuffing it into her mouth as fast as she could, pausing only to jabber on to the Pyro, who was cutting his steak into small bite-sized pieces, nodding at her as she gesticulated. He was very pale skinned, with scruffy blonde bordering on white hair. His pale icy blue eyes were focused on the Scout, looking over her inquisitively. The Sniper was currently inspecting the dark purple potato on his plate curiously as the Pyro passed him the plate of butter before the Scout had a chance to eat it all. After eating a small bite he seemed to decide that he liked it and ate the rest before starting on his steak. He was precise with each cut, almost surgical, which drew Medic’s attention with interest. She watched as he cut off a piece of meat, and then flicked her gaze upwards, scanning his face. His dark brown hair was messily pushed back, his angular sideburns leading into stubble that hadn’t seen a razor for at least a few days. Her gaze drifted over high cheekbones and an angular jaw, but paused on bright blue eyes the shade of a cloudless day. After a few moments she realized that Sniper was staring straight back at her, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his lips.

She quickly turned to Engineer, covering her embarrassment by chatting about mundane things.

 


	4. Dead Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the team has assembled it's time for a lecture, and a training exercise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Scout for Beta-ing this chapter!

The next morning, Engineer began the meeting with a presentation about the respawn system, which was so full of technical jargon and scientific blather that even Medic had zoned out by the end of it. Scout had fallen asleep, and Sniper kicked her under the table as Engineer raised an eyebrow. The Bostonian made a face at Sniper and sullenly stared at the equations that Engineer had projected onto the board, rolling her eyes and huffing in boredom. Engineer sighed, face-palming and turning to Soldier who had been standing at attention the entire time. Smirking at the rest of the team she gave him a playful salute.

“All right Soldier. Why don’tcha  take over this meeting. Seems like science is too much for ‘em.” She grinned, knowing full well what they were in for.

Medic glared at Engineer as Soldier gave a smart salute and began loudly lecturing the team about proper battle tactics, which soon devolved into ridiculous war stories of his that involved blowing up buildings with a shovel, mechanical Nazi soldiers, and him singlehandedly bringing down the Nazi regime. About four hours later Soldier was just finishing up yet another rant.

“AND THAT IS HOW I HELPED PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT INVADE RUSSIA.” He barked.

The rest of the team had long since stopped listening, since most of what he said made absolutely no sense or was completely historically inaccurate. Scout had fallen asleep again, almost slipping out of her chair onto the floor. Demo was actually under the table on the floor, asleep. Spy was staring at the ceiling with annoyance, arms folded across his chest.

“Thank ya Soldier for that….ah…rousing lecture.” Engineer patted him on the back as she stood up. “Ya’ll are dismissed for lunch.”

After their rather long introductory meeting and lunch, Soldier had decided that they should all run a few laps around the base to make sure they were all in shape and ready for their first battle. After one lap Scout had the lead, and had actually put on a burst of speed and made another full lap, passing them and continuing on. She was currently running backwards, yelling at them to keep up. Medic kept near the front, preferring the view of the base and the desert beyond to her teammates’ backsides. She didn’t feel like holding herself back today, even though the sun was hot overhead and she could feel the sweat dripping down her face. Behind her, the rest of the team jogged determinedly, led by Soldier. Heavy was having a hard time, trailing behind the rest of the group. Demo was grumbling loudly about the stupidity of running around in circles. After about a half an hour of this Soldier stopped abruptly, the others behind him almost running into him and each other at the sudden stop.

“HALT! DISMISSED!”  Soldier barked before marching off towards the door.

As he disappeared into the building Engineer turned to face the rest of the group. Medic came walking back, sweat dripping down her red face, along with a panting Scout. With her tongue lolling out of her mouth, she gave a small thumbs-up, boasting about how she managed to pass them, “like, twenty times”. Although she had not been counting on the heat when she decided to sprint around, she was in better condition than most of the team. Medic wrinkled her nose, breathing hard as she pushed a sweat-drenched strand of hair out of her face.

“Well, I know that was hard, team.” Engineer gasped out, “But we do have ta get used ta hard exercise out in this climate. We’ll be fightin’ out here in the heat with all our gear on so it’ll be even harder than what we just did. We’ll all be in better shape as it goes on. So let’s all get to the showers!”

Pyro looked like he was going to keel over and die. His face was bright red and he was leaning against Sniper, who looked unfazed by all the running around in the heat. Medic looked over at everyone else, assessing each individual’s condition. Heavy was gasping for air and had collapsed on the ground. Demo was on the ground as well, but seemed to be mostly fine. Spy was sneering, had lit a cigarette, and was leaning against the shaded part of the wall, smoking.

“Pyro, are you alright?” Medic asked, feeling his pulse. “You certainly aren’t used to zis kind of heat in Iceland.”

Pyro shook his head weakly and gasped, trying to breathe.

“Sniper, can you take him to ze Medical Bay bitte?” she asked, concerned.

Sniper pulled Pyro’s arm over his shoulder and helped him walk wobbily back to the base. Scout followed after them, tongue still lolling. Medic walked over to Demo.

“Are you alright?”

“’M just gonna take a nap.”

“Not out here you aren’t. Go back inside vhere it’s nice and cool. Ve don’t need you getting sun poisoning.” She and Engineer helped him up and sent him on his way.

“Heavy, mein freund, let’s get you back to ze base, ja?”

Heavy sighed heavily, lugging himself off the ground with Medic and Engineer’s help.

“Is so hot. In Russia, is never dis hot.”

“Ja. Not in Germany eizer.”

Engineer had gone ahead to make sure Demo actually made it back to the base.

“Engineer! Please bring him to ze Medical Bay as vell, ja?” she yelled to her as Engineer waved, acknowledging. 

She had Heavy’s arm over her shoulder, trying to support him as best she could.

“ _My little doctor seems to be doing much better than most in this heat._ ” Heavy commented in Russian.

“ _Hmm, yes. I am quite surprised actually_.” Medic answered back in German, “ _I thought I would be in worse shape, especially after keeping in front of everyone. But I have been running around the base since we got here, so I have had more time to get used to it_.”

“ _Oh you sneaky little bird_.” Heavy laughed, which turned into coughing.

“ _And you are coming with me to the Medical Bay as well_.” Medic sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For RED team shenanigans follow http://ourredteam.tumblr.com/


	5. Fixing the Heat Problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Scout for Beta-ing this chapter

When Medic got to the Medical Bay Engineer had already gotten Pyro into a cot, as well as Demo, who seemed to have passed out. She was putting an IV into Pyro’s arm.

“Danke, Engineer,” Medic sighed as she helped Heavy onto a cot. She quickly got IVs into him and Demo, turning the air conditioning up before scanning their medical files for relevant information. Satisfied, she looked them over, taking their temperatures and putting some ice under Pyro’s neck.

After getting them all situated, Engineer left, leaving Medic to tend to her three patients. The German sighed and began to try and think of a way to prevent this from happening again, especially to Pyro. Once they started battles he would be in that impermeable suit. If he was this prone to heat in a t-shirt and shorts she wasn’t sure how he was going to make it with that suit on. Suddenly, she had an idea.

A few hours later, she had written out a few pages worth of musings, notes, and formulas. This might just work, and it could work for all of them, not just the three in the worst condition. She spent a few hours in her room of medical supplies, mixing and cooking together chemicals and measuring out miscellaneous compounds. When she emerged from the makeshift lab she had a large jar of crystal clear liquid, with which she filled a syringe. Medic looked over at the three patients that had fallen asleep in their cots, contemplating. Shrugging, she took a rubber strip and tied it around her upper arm, found a vein, and injected herself with the solution. She shivered as she untied the rubber band, putting a pad of cotton into the bend of her arm. She could feel the solution spreading through her veins like ice. Shivering uncontrollably she sunk behind her desk onto the floor. _Oh god, it is so cold.._. she felt like she was freezing from the inside. Maybe this had been a bad idea; perhaps she had made it too powerful, or given herself too large of a dose. She hadn’t exactly diluted it before she injected herself. Her teeth were chattering extremely loudly. She closed her eyes tight.

.

The next morning, Scout came bounding into the Medical Bay. Engineer had sent her to get Medic and her three patients for breakfast.

“Wake up! Hey, there’s food! Come on!” she ran up and down the row of cots as the three sat up, yawning.

Pyro squinted at her with a slight look of annoyance as she sprinted back and forth, chattering away about food.

“Medic!” she called, running around the room.

There was a loud bang and a groan as Medic crawled out from under her desk, her face pale.

“What the hell are you doin’ down there?” Scout inquired with one eyebrow raised.

“Ach, just hitting my head on sings.” She muttered, cursing in German as she rubbed her head, frowning, but then suddenly smiled. “However, I didn’t die!”

“Uh, yeeeeah…Good job?” Scout offered, staring for a couple of seconds before running off to breakfast. The others trailed behind her.

“Little doctor does not look so good.” Heavy commented, “What did you do?”

“Ah, just anozer experiment. Ve vill see if it vorks later.” She slowly pulled herself up and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face, “I’m going to take a shower, and zen I shall see you at breakfast, ja?”

Heavy looked at her worriedly before wandering off to the commons.

.

After eating a bowl of oatmeal Medic wandered outside, walking around the building and looking at the sparse vegetation that grew in the shadows and bits of leaking pipeline. After a while she began to jog, and then run. She ran around the building for a while, stopping when she grew tired. Checking her watch, she saw that she had been running for over an hour. Her pulse was racing, but she wasn’t feeling any ill effects from the heat. This was unusual, considering the time she had spent running unprotected under the high noon sun. It could only mean that her plan had worked, and all that was left now was to talk to Engineer.

.

“Yeah, should be fine. Lemme see that.” Engineer was looking over Medic’s notes on her new experiment, “Hmm, I think that the system should be able ta update with that, so we can keep it in our system. Hold on, lemme check the programmin’…” she looked back the computer screen, typing furiously before looking the results over and nodding. “Yup, should work out just fine!”

“Wunderbar!” Medic smiled. “Vould you like to go first?”

.

That night Medic called the entire team in the Medical bay, and then injected each of them with her new solution. Staying up all night, she wanted to make sure that everything went well.

The next morning, she woke up at her desk to Soldier yelling and accusing her of trying to kill them all. Rolling her eyes, she suggested that he take them all out on a morning run. After a few more minutes of yelling the rest of the team woke up, all very pale as they groggily looked around. Eager to get up and get moving, Scout stood too quickly and immediately fell over, sprawling onto the floor.

“SHOWERS.” Soldier ordered, “ALL OF YOU. THEN CONVENE OUTSIDE FOR A DRILL.”

About half an hour later the team was running around the base. They did so for about two hours before Soldier decided to order them to stop. Medic looked over the rest of the team. Heavy was breathing harder than normal, but was otherwise fine. Pyro was smiling and giving Medic a grateful wave. The rest of the team looked surprised.

“I told you I vasn’t trying to kill zem.” Medic poked a finger at Soldier chest in annoyance.

Soldier grumbled a little before yelling “DIIIIIIISMISSED” and marching off back to the base.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more RED team adventures: http://ourredteam.tumblr.com/


	6. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some more settling in.

When they got back to the base Medic made her way to the Medbay, locking the door behind her and turning on her record player. She was glad that TF Industries had shipped over even the things that weren’t exactly what you would call essential. Her doves were cooing from the corner, her books and records were all alphabetically organized on her shelves, and her car was in the vehicle bay beneath the base. There was hardly anything missing, which was nice since she had a nagging feeling that this employment would result in her being stuck here for an interminably long time. Not that she had really had any choice in the matter. TF Industries found people who were in deep trouble, and promised to fix it with the added benefit of employment. She wasn’t sure what the others’ stories were, but she hoped they never asked for hers. She absentmindedly tugged on one of her braids as she hummed along with Shubert’s Die Forelle. She started cleaning up the cots and singing with the music, her voice echoing through the Medbay.

Sniper paused for a moment outside the Medbay doors, listening to the music and what he assumed was the vocal part of the recording until there was a slightly flat note, which then devolved into a bout of German cursing. So it was Medic that had been singing. He smiled and leaned against the door, listening to see if she would start singing again.

“Whaaaaaatcha dooooooin?”

Sniper turned to see Scout rocking back and forth on her heels, her hands clasped behind her back, grinning widely at him. Sniper squinted at her and smirked.

“Seein’ if Medic was busy. Sounds like she is.”

“Uuuuuuh Huuuuuuuuh.”

“And what’r you up to?”

“Just explorin’.” She grinned. “Didn’t really have time to yesterday. Didja know there’s an entire room that’s a freeza?”

“Nope.”

Scout grabbed his arm and starting tugging him back towards the common room, “Come on it’s friggin’ awesome! And there’s a whole refrigerate-a room too!”

Sniper reluctantly allowed himself to be led away by the excitable girl.

Pyro looked up as Scout dragged Sniper across the common room, jabbering on about how much bacon there was down in the supply rooms. He smiled, shaking his head slightly as he looked back down at the book he was reading. There was something about the loquacious little teenager that was endearing, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Heavy was sitting across from Pyro, reading, and listening to the commotion occurring in the kitchen as Scout attempted to open the door to the supply room. Sniper had started laughing as she kicked the door angrily, exclaiming that it hadn’t been locked before. Most of the team seemed to be getting along fairly well. The newcomers had settled right in, with little to no trouble from Soldier, who still seemed distrustful of Medic about any little thing she did. He hardly ever saw the Spy, who seemed to disappear whenever there wasn’t a mandatory training exercise or a meal. The Demo liked to hole up in his workshop, and occasionally loud pops and bangs could be heard from the hallway. The Pyro so far had been very quiet, Heavy hadn’t heard him say more than a few words since he arrived; whether it was from a language barrier or from shyness he wasn’t sure yet.

Soldier marched into the room, wearing a tank top and cargo pants, but still sporting the helmet that he never seemed to take off for some reason. Engineer followed shortly after, heading straight to the two standing in front of the locked door. As Scout continued to kick the door the Engineer pointed at the camera on the ceiling and told her to stop damaging the building. Scout belligerently whined that the door was locked as Engineer moved her out of the way, and keyed in a code on the number pad near the door. Scout grumbled a little before grabbing Sniper by the arm and dragging him down the stairs as Engineer rolled her eyes.

Heavy looked back at the book he was reading. The team was interesting, if anything. It remained to be seen how things would settle out as time went on. They only had a few more days before the real battles began. He hoped they would all be ready for that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to SamaraScout for Beta-ing this chapter!
> 
> For more RED Team visit http://ourredteam.tumblr.com/   
> We love when you interact with us!!


	7. First Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things quickly get rough during the first battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Medic is the character that I know the best, she is the easiest one for me to follow around and see what's happening. Since most of what I get is from her point of view, that's what you'll get most of the time.

It had been a quick couple of days, and now they were all standing at the ready, in full uniform and geared up for battle. Soldier was standing at attention, facing them, as Engineer paced up and down the line, giving them one last pep talk before the battle began.

“Now, I know ya’ll ‘v been trainin’ real hard with your new equipment. But it won’t be the same out there. I know I’m one ta talk since this is my first battle too, but from what we know of the situation, it’s gonna be brutal, it’s gonna be fast, and it’s gonna be bloody.” She paused for moment, “Now as far as the respawn system, all I know is, that when we die out there, and we _will_ die, we’ll be zapped back here. Then we can run back inta battle again. The system was designed to keep us on our toes, and make sure we have an aversion ta dyin’, and I don’t know what to expect from it, but I don’t expect it’ll be sunshine on daisies, that’s fer sure. But I know ya’ll ‘ll be great out there, yer all talented people, and that’s why yer here.”

Soldier took a step forward and saluted as Engineer moved to pick up her toolbox and stand in line. But before he could start to say anything the voice of the announcer came across the speakers.

“Battle begins in 10 seconds.”

Medic felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Heavy, who nodded encouragingly.

“9 seconds”

Soldier fell into line next to Engineer.

“8 seconds.”

Pyro pulled his mask down over his face.

“7 seconds,”

Scout started jogging in place, quickly talking to herself.

“6 seconds.”

Spy flipped out his cigarette case languidly, glancing over the contents.

“5…4…3…2…1…GO.”

They ran out into the sunlight. Medic followed Heavy, the beam of her Medigun connection with him glowing as the gun hummed pleasantly in her hands. She kept far enough behind him that she could see ahead, but close enough that she had some protection from anything headed directly towards them. Scout had already sprinted ahead, hollering, while Soldier followed not far behind. Sniper was climbing a nearby building to get a better view over the field, and Spy seemed to have disappeared. She could hear the sounds of shooting and explosions ahead, and she braced herself as they came around a corner. Suddenly, Heavy fell to the ground in front of her. He had been shot with a bullet straight through the head. Medic stopped short, staring in shock for a moment, before running into the nearest building and switching to her syringe gun as she kept an eye out for signs of blue. This was progressing much faster than she had anticipated; her hands shook slightly as she stepped gingerly through the building. She heard a shout for help from one of her teammates outside, and running towards the source saw that Scout was lying on her side, bleeding out on the sand in an open area. This was something she could handle. Medic charged towards her, switching to her Medigun on the way, and shot the beam at Scout as she lay there gasping in pain. After a few moments Scout sat up, feeling herself to make sure she was still in one piece, and then gave a thumbs up to Medic as she jogged away. There was suddenly an influx of activity as several mercs from each team converged on the space. Medic looked up to see that the BLU Medic and Soldier had come into the area and were heading after Scout. She froze as realization dawned on her.

“Bruder?” Medic stared in shock at the BLU Medic as he too, stopped short, staring at her.

He smiled, all sharp toothed grins, “Schwester! Es ist schon eine lange Zeit!“

Abruptly Medic lunged at him, her face contorted with rage as she shoved him up against the nearest building, screaming at him in German. The rest of the surrounding mercs froze in confusion.

“ _WHY AREN’T YOU DEAD. YOU SHOULD BE DEAD. THEY TOOK YOU TO NUREMBURG_.” She demanded.

“ _Well, TF Industries happen to be quite good at extraction. Which is why, I’m guessing, **you** are here._ ” He answered coolly, smirking.

She dropped him and backed up, staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief.

The BLU Medic had started laughing, doubling over as he cracked up. 

“ _WHAT?_ ” Medic shrieked at him, “ _WHAT IS SO FUNNY?_ ”

“ _Oh, but it’s so hilarious, first him, and now you. It’s too precious. It’s so ironic._ ”

“ _What are you…_?” Medic was interrupted by a gunshot.

Medic fell back, pain tearing through her neck, feeling the blood pouring down. She raised her hands to her neck, sucking in air through the bullet hole in her trachea. Her brother smirked at her as she came to the realization that she was going bleed out very quickly. That bullet breaking the confusion had set the rest of the teams off, and they were now battling it out around them.

“ _Watch out little sister, you will have to learn quickly here. Or you will end up dead._ ” He strode away, his coat billowing behind him.


	8. Respawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Respawn doesn't go so well, and now Engie has work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to SamaraScout for Beta-ing this chapter.
> 
> Unless I get some heavy jolt of inspiration this might linger for a bit before I update again. BUT I will be adding little ficlets about the teams shenanigans to the collection, so keep an eye out for those. 
> 
> I really appreciate comments! They help me a lot with writing things. Thank you Jumpp for commenting and to all of you leaving kudos! It really makes me happy knowing people are reading and enjoying my work. 
> 
> As always you can request ficlets, art, or ask us questions at http://ourredteam.tumblr.com/
> 
> Viel Spaß!

Medic gasped, slowly her vision was blurring as she choked on the blood that was dripping into her throat. She rolled onto her side, hand still clutching uselessly over the gushing wound. The pain was unbearable and she could feel her body getting numb, her lips going cold, her muscles starting to weaken. Diagnoses shot off in her brain one by one as she mentally listed off symptoms, her thoughts turned to medical logistics in lieu of an emotional response. Attempting to stop the bloodflow was impossible, and she could barely move anyway.

“Look at zis poor petite fraise.” Medic heard a voice as a blue figure approached her.

She shied away and attempted to move but it was impossible, she was already almost losing consciousness. Suddenly she was being dragged off the ground, grabbed around the waist as the man buried his face against the back of her head, inhaling deeply. She was too weak to even struggle against this bizarre action, her arm falling limp, her head flopping forwards as she lost consciousness. Blackness consumed her.

She was suddenly aware of bits of rainbows, like the reflections off of a prism, floating in the darkness. Then, suddenly an explosion of sound all around her in a haze of red fog; people shouting orders, screams of agony, her brother’s voice, explosions, air raid sirens, a deafening cacophony of grating noise. She couldn’t think, couldn’t move. The air was filled with pain and the screeching of violence and bad memories. It felt as if she had been torn apart and could feel every tiny piece of her mind screaming in pain. There was suddenly a wall, dripping with blood in front her. Slowly, out of the wall bloomed huge dark black flowers, which began to blossom. Within each flower was a severed human head. She recognized each of them as more and more flowers blossomed on the wall. The heads opened their mouths and screamed at her as violins screeched behind her. As she looked down at her hands they began to bleed. Cuts sliced into her skin all over, ripping her open as she stared at the wall of heads, screaming in agony. The vision began to fade into blackness and rainbows as the pain was replaced with the pinpricking sensation of being pieced together by the respawn machine. She was vaguely aware of being once again whole, could feel the warmth of the air around her, the tears streaming down her cheeks. The screaming hadn’t stopped, and it took her a few more moments to realize that she was the one screaming. Shaking, she walked up to the wall in front of her and dropped to the ground in front of it, resting her head against the cool concrete as she tried to calm down. Her skin was clammy and coated in a cold sweat, and she was shaking violently.

“Machen Sie mich nicht zurückkehren …” she whispered to herself, sobbing.

“Medic, _Are you alright?”_ she heard Heavy ask her in German as he came up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“ _No. Give me a moment; just let me pull myself together._ ” She answered after a few moments, dragging herself back into reality.

She pulled her glasses off, hands still shaking as she wiped her face off with a handkerchief, and then cleaned off her glasses, focusing on the action and trying not to sink back into the darkness of that vision. When she turned and looked up at Heavy she saw that he looked shaken as well, red eyed and pale. Scout was sitting on the ground nearby, seemingly catatonic. Soldier was kneeling on the ground in front of her and was gently speaking to her and waving his hand in front of her eyes in a very uncharacteristic display of quiet concern. Medic slowly walked over and started checking Scout’s vitals.

“It really gets to you the first time.” Soldier stated, his expression hidden by his helmet.

 “Is always like dhat?” Heavy asked.

“Yep. Levels out a little as you go, but the first one always knocks people for a loop. Our Medic…” he trailed off.

Medic stared at him for a moment, “I, vhat?”

“Not you. Nevermind,” Soldier suddenly jumped up, resuming his normal loud persona, “BACK TO BATTLE MAGGOTS.”

He ran out of the respawn room leaving behind his very confused teammates. Scout seemed to be coming back to her senses and was mumbling something about baseball. Heavy helped her stand back up and she blinked hard a couple of times before bolting out the door. Medic sighed heavily and put a hand on Heavy’s arm.

“Vell, ve’d better get back out zere…as much as I hate to go through **zat** again.”

A couple of hours later they had all been through respawn so many times that Medic was completely on edge and about to have a nervous breakdown. The rest of the team looked like they were about to snap too, except for Soldier, who kept looking over his teammates worriedly. The announcer finally ended the battle for the day and they all made their way back to the base. Medic practically ran to the bathroom, quickly stripping off her clothes and jumping under a shower, still shaking from the after effects of the many respawns.

Engineer had other plans, and marched into the engineering bay, grabbing the binders of information on the respawn system. Carrying them down the hallway to the control room, she sat down at the system’s mainframe computer and accessed the respawn system code. There was a lot of work to be done.

 


	9. Tempers Flare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The respawn system is effecting some of the team more than others, and Scout isn't making it any easier on anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't expecting to add anything to this for a while, but this kind of happened. This chapter hasn't been Beta'd yet, but I felt like putting it up.

By the time that the weekend came, the team was in a state of mental and physical exhaustion that rivalled that of most combat units fighting at the front-line trenches. Engineer was still trying to work on the respawn system. She had managed to isolate the part of the code that caused the horrible visions and personalized hell, but was still fiddling around with it to try and lessen the effects of respawn. Meanwhile, tempers were flaring between some of the other team members.

Medic sat fidgeting with her cup of tea at the common room dining table, staring at the book in front of her determinedly. She was getting more and more irrationally exasperated by the second. It wasn't working to distract her, and she had read through the same paragraph about twenty times now and still hadn't absorbed it. She was brought out of this repetitive futility by the smoke alarm in the kitchen suddenly going off, beeping obnoxiously. Scout came running across the room from the television, headed towards the kitchen with a look of imminent doom on her face.

“SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT.”

Medic rolled her eyes heavily and got up, walking after Scout into the kitchen, which was now full of smoke. Pinching the bridge of her nose she sighed in frustration before watching Scout grab a flaming pot of…something…off of the stove.

“Vhat did you do now?”

“Uh…” Scout flailed around with the flaming pot, seemingly at a loss of what to do with it.

“Is zere oil in zere?”

“No!”

“Zen put it in ze sink und run vater in it.”

Scout did this and immediately burned herself on the steam, sending her hopping around the kitchen grabbing her hand and yelling.

“OW OW OW”

Medic glared as she turned off the stove, which had been at the highest possible setting and the propane flame, which had been dancing wildly about like as if it had a life of its own, died. She turned to look at Scout who was now running her hand under the sink, cursing. That was it, she’d had enough of her younger team mate’s stupidity.

“Zat’s it.” Medic angrily stomped over to Scout. “Stop setting sings on fire. Zis is ze fourth time zis veek. Stop cooking if zats too hard for you. Ve don’t need to burn down ze whole complex.”

“But I’m huuuuuuuuuuuuuungryyyyyyyyyy” Scout whined, pawing at the kitchen towel.

“I don’t care. Just…just…vhat kind of idiot does zis? You do ze same sing every time and expect it to be different? I told you two days ago don’t put ze stove up to high, don’t go over medium.” She yelled, gesturing at the stove, “Look at zat! You burnt ze ceiling! Engineer has enough to do visout having to clean up after you!”

Sure enough there was a big black mark right on the edge of the fume hood, charred plaster crumbling in bits onto the floor.

“Well, what the hell am I supposed ta do, huh?” Scout folded her arms across her chest and scowled at Medic, “I wanna eat, I’m frickin’ hungry.”

“Eat. An. Apple.”

“If I do, will it keep **you** away, Doc?” Scout groaned, grabbing an apple off of the counter and biting into it, then mumbled around the apple as she left, “ _ffkin’ Nathi bith_ …”

Scout suddenly found herself shoved up against the door frame as Medic furiously hissed at her, eyes wild.

“Vhat vas zat dumme Arschloch? You vant to vake up tomorrow vis no fingers? Maybe I’ll just test out some poisons in your next meal or somesing, hmmm? Don’t test me, Scout.”

The apple dropped to the floor. Scout was too shocked to say anything but stare down openmouthed and terrified at the little German doctor who currently had her two inches off the ground. She was stronger than she looked.

“Uhm…”

They both turned heads to see Pyro, who was holding a bowl of oatmeal, shifting uncomfortably and looking from Scout to Medic as if worried that they would both start yelling at him next. Medic dropped Scout with an angry huff and stomped off to go work in the Medical Bay.

“Holy shit.” Scout stared at Medic’s retreating back.

Pyro was standing in the doorway, awkwardly looking at the floor as if unsure of how to proceed. Shaking herself out a little, Scout turned to him.

“She’s a frickin’ nutcase. Jesus. Christ. Man, I dunno if I can sleep again after that! And I’m still freakin’ hungry.”

Pyro shrugged, “I heard Heavy tell Sniper dhat respawn is very hard on her. She’s just unstable right now.”

“Pyro! That’s the most words you’ve said ta me at once. I’ll get ya talkin’ up a storm yet.” She grinned, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the kitchen.

He walked over to the sink, and stared for a moment at the mess.

“Yeah, I set my freakin’ macaroni on fiah…again. Dammit. How’m I supposed ta eat?”

Pyro just gave her a look.

“Okay. Okay.” She sighed, “How’m I supposed ta eat outside of meal hours?”

In response Pyro put his bowl of oatmeal on the counter and grabbed a box of mac n’ cheese out of the cabinet, before grabbing another pot off of the hanging rack and putting it on the stove.

“Aw, man! Thanks Pyro. If you feed me, I will love you for like….ever.” Scout chattered on as Pyro lit the stove and started cooking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like this, you should check out the other stories in the Our RED Team Series and see what else they get into.


	10. Tempers Flare 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some explode outwards, others burn inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This probably should have been part of the last chapter, but it wasn't originally what I had planned, so I didn't end up writing it until later.
> 
> This chapter (and many others before it) Beta'd by cloudbruja06

Storming down the hallway, Medic hardly even registered Sniper walking towards her until she ran straight into him.

“Get out of ze vay.” She exasperatedly pushed by him into the Medical Bay, feeling his stare on her back as she stormed to her desk.

The doors swung shut and Sniper was left blinking after her. He frowned and continued on his way down the hallway. He had been checking to see how Engineer was getting along with the respawn machine, but she hadn’t been in her Engineering Bay, which probably meant that she was working with the actual computer equipment. At this point, he just wanted to get away from the rest of the team, who just seemed to be getting on each other’s nerves. There was Medic, who apparently had a harder time with the respawn than the other team members, and for all intents and purposes should probably be left alone until Engineer hopefully resolved the issue of the respawn system. She had gotten increasingly irritable as the week had gone on, and he was starting to worry that she was going to start sending people to respawn herself.

Scout, while still chatty and boisterous as ever, had developed a slight twitch and unconsciously flinched whenever someone came into her peripheral vision unexpectedly. She was grumpy and complained about things more often now, as well. Pyro was as quiet as ever, and disappeared for long periods of time and skipped meals. Demo secluded himself in his workshop most of the time, and the only evidence Sniper had seen of him outside of battles was the steadily growing pile of empty whiskey bottles in the hallway outside the explosives lab. He hadn’t seen Spy at all the past week except for at the beginning of battles. Heavy had been spending time with Medic in the Medical Bay most of the first half of the week, probably trying to talk her down from the bad respawns. But after a while, she had even gotten too much for Heavy to handle, and so he was spending most of his time reading in the common. Soldier was apparently immune to the effects of respawn, and was his normal loud self, if a little softer towards his teammates than Sniper had grown to expect. There was an enigma there. One that Sniper didn’t really feel like exploring at that particular moment.

As he rounded the corner into the common room, he was surprised to see Pyro and Scout in the kitchen. She was chatting away as he benevolently stirred a pot on the stove, giving her a small smile and nod every few seconds. He looked up as Sniper came into the kitchen and gave a little nod in return as Scout grabbed onto Sniper’s arm, not even bothering to say hello, and continued the one sided conversation she was having.

“….so then I was just sittin’ there all covered in blood. So of course my hands were all slippery and my bat was slippin’ out of my hands, and then that freakin’ BLU Scout comes outta nowhere and just like…stands there starin’ at me like I’m some kinda…I don’t even know…like a…like a…”

“Steak.”

Sniper stared at Pyro, who was now glaring at the macaroni as if willing it to combust into flames. Scout stared at him too for a moment with an odd look on her face before continuing.

“…yeah I guess you could say that…Anyways so he’s freakin’ just standin’ there, starin’ at me…”

Sniper watched as Pyro’s grip on the pot handle tightened, an angry frown forming on his usually serene face as Scout kept going with her story of the BLU Scout’s increasing preoccupation with chasing her down. Well that was…interesting. He raised an eyebrow and laid a hand on Pyro’s shoulder, feeling him instantly drop his tense shoulders as he turned his head and looked back at Sniper with an almost apologetic look on his face. Scout was still monologuing as she wandered around the kitchen, opening up cabinets, and completely oblivious. Pyro shrugged, giving Sniper a little nervous half-smile before turning back to the macaroni.

 


	11. Respawn Remedy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Engie and Medic chat, and a mysterious package arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long for a new update, my lovely Beta-er has limited internet, and has therefore not been able to beta this chapter, but I figured I would throw it up here anyway.  
> Engie and I have moved to Texas, and I'm working 6am-10pm most days, so I'm pretty busy. Sorry for the delay!

Medic had gotten fed up with trying to organize her desk, and dumped the papers on the ground with an angry growl, staring angrily at a stray scalpel that rolled across the floor her fingers twitching, before collapsing down to her knees onto the floor and sobbing. It had only been a week and the respawn system had been dragging up all of the worst things in her past, things that she had carefully stored away in the deepest darkest corners of her brain. Now it was all right there, raw and agonizing. She could barely take it, the thought of having to go through that again next week, and for how many weeks after? What if Engineer never figured out a way to fix the machine? Maybe she should go check up on the situation. It would either make her feel better or she’d be just as miserable. It couldn’t get any worse at this point.

After rubbing the tears off of her face as best she could, Medic made her way down the hallway, feeling like a piece of broken pottery held together with tape and rubber bands, about to fall apart at any second. When she reached the computer mainframe room she saw Engineer pouring over a large book, while glancing up at a large screen of scrolling code. She looked worse for wear, dark circles peering out from under her goggles and about 20 empty coffee cups stacked in the corner.

“Any progress?” Medic asked, biting her lip as she stared at the incomprehensible jibberish filling the screen.

Engineer sighed heavily. Well that wasn’t a good sign.

“Well,” she stated, pointing at the screen, “Whoever designed this system was either a moron or a goddamn genius. If they didn’t want us ta mess with the code, well they did a good job a makin’ sure a that. I ain’t never seen anythin’ so convoluted in my whole life. But, I figured out where the mess is with the respawn finally. Now I just gotta figure out how ta fix it.”

“Can you?”

“I think so. I just hafta figure out where this is pullin’ from, and what I need to redirect to. Sorta.”

“So, it’s hopeful zen.” Medic looked back at the scrolling mess. “I don’t know if I can take any more.” 

 “Yeah, ya seem ta have a harder time with this darn thing than everyone else…” Engineer trailed off, staring blankly at the screen in front her.

Medic fidgeted agitatedly with one of her vest buttons, “Ach, I hate zis place. Everysing is too hot, zere’s novhere to go to get out of ze base, und I can’t even function properly because of zis…zis…respawn” she gestured at it with distress.

“Why’re ya here anyways, then?” Engineer asked.

“You don’t end up here because you vant to. You end up here because you have novhere else to go, because you are in trouble, running avay from somesing, because you’ve done somesing terribly wrong, or you are just…insane!” Medic’s volume and pitch had gradually increased as she got more and more agitated. “Ve are ze forsaken rejects of ze outside vorld. Zey promised us many sings to get us here, because no person in zere right mind vould say yes to such an employment offer!”

“Calm down now, it ain’t all that bad. At least it won’t be once I get this darn thing figured out.” Engineer patted Medic’s arm gently, as if she were handling an unfamiliar cat that was just as likely to scratch her as start to purr.

Medic abruptly collapsed on the floor next to Engineers chair, sobbing hysterically. For a moment, Engineer just stared at her. She had only known Medic for about two months now, and Medic had never been one to show any emotional weakness, in fact she had been quite reserved and quiet most of the time. While she had been increasingly hostile this past week, this particular brand of outburst was unexpected. Blinking for a moment, Engineer gently pet the top of Medic’s head hoping that it was construed as a soothing gesture. As Medic got a hold of herself she quickly stood up, apologized, and walked quickly out of the room, leaving Engineer staring worriedly after her. She really needed to fix the respawn machine, before the whole team completely lost it.

Later that night Engineer still sat exhaustedly at the computer, frowning at the screen. This shouldn’t be so hard. She was wary of trying to change anything since it could mean that they wouldn’t respawn at all. Permanent death of any of her teammates, herself included, was not an option that she would ever consider.

“Hey.”

Engineer jumped and turned to see that Scout had popped up next to her without her noticing.

She groaned and turned back to the computer.“What is it.”

“Ya got a package in the mail.” Scout pushed the parcel at her arm repeatedly until Engineer grabbed it a little bit too violently.

When Engineer turned to apologize, Scout had already scampered off. Sighing heavily, she swore a little to herself and made a note to make the kid some pancakes later. It was bad enough Scout having to deal with Medic’s little explosions of anger without her also thinking that Engineer was angry at her as well. She turned her attention to the package. It was from MannCo. That’s funny, she didn’t remember ordering anything from them…She dismissed it and began to open the box, ripping the brown paper off and opening it.

When she saw what was inside she just stared at it for a moment, bewildered. She reached in a took out the book, rereading the title, just to be sure she wasn’t so tired that she had now started to hallucinate. Nope, it read the same now as it had the first time, “Coding Logistics for R.E.D. Respawn Systems.” What in the hell? This was definitely not something that had been in the catalogues; otherwise she would already have a copy. She hurriedly reached for the packaging, looking around inside it for some sort of information about who could have possibly sent this to her. As she found no trace of anything in the package she froze, and slowly looked up at the surveillance camera directly facing her, flinching slightly at the red blinking light.

Well, they did say to never look a gift horse in the mouth…

 


	12. Missing Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A celebration dinner for Engineer fixing the respawn, but Demo seems to be missing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I'll be updating more now that I'm back in VA. Hope you enjoy this update!

Engineer had managed to fix the problem of the respawner, at least enough to make it bearable. She couldn’t get it to completely stop with the flashbacks and the occasional reconstructed memory wormhole though. It seemed to be an inextricable side effect of the respawn system; and it would shut the system off if she tried to make it go away completely. Most of the team had immediate relief, and a few, including Scout, reported that they had no negative side effects at all now. Medic was still experiencing fairly bad side effects and convoluted memory trips, but it was getting fewer and farther between as the week went on. By the end of the week it had leveled out enough that it was only a minor inconvenience. Finally, as the weekend ceasefire rolled around, everyone was in good spirits. Medic, Engineer, and Spy had made an extensive dinner for the team to celebrate Engineer’s success with the respawner, as well as their first week with a majority of battle victories. The entire team was gathered around the dining room table. Scout was barely being restrained from pouncing on the food as it was put out. Medic slapped her hand away from the heaping plate of schnitzel she was trying to fit on the table, making a pointed statement about manners.

 “Where’s Demo?” Engineer asked as she realized that they were missing one person from the table.

Soldier suddenly had a sinking feeling as he realized that he hadn’t seen the Scotsman since the middle of that day’s battle. Standing up so suddenly that the rest of the team flinched; he bolted into the hallway, not feeling his teammate’s confused looks on his back. He banged on the door of Demo’s room, and then opened it when no one answered. It was empty. As he turned to do the same at the door of the explosives lab, he saw that Engineer had beaten him to it and was currently walking into the lab. He followed her in, but Demo wasn’t there either. Engineer shrugged and turned to go back to the common, but Soldier clamped a hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Engineer cocked her head, turning towards him.

“He’s not here.” Soldier stated ominously.

Engineer stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head bemusedly, “I think we kinda came ta that conclusion, that’s fer sure.”

“No. I mean he’s not _here_.” Soldier stated again, as if repetition would get the point through clearer.

Engineer sighed and took her goggles off, looking up into Soldier’s worried face, and spoke softly “Yer gonna hafta be more specific Solly. What’s goin’ on?”

Soldier grimaced as everything suddenly came locking back into place in his brain. There was something about Engie that could do that, he wasn’t sure if mental clarity was something he really wanted right now, though.

“Those damn BLU’s must have grabbed him during the battle. I haven’t seen or heard him since then.”

“Now come on, that’s against the regulations, why would they do that?” Engie frowned.

“Didn’t stop ‘em before. Won’t stop ‘em now.” Soldier squared himself up, staring at the wall in front of him.

Engineer had gotten used to him saying things like this, and she was starting to piece together the enigma that was Soldier, but now wasn’t the time for that. She stared up at him for a few moments, contemplating the options.

“Well, I think I can whip up a locator program on the respawn computers, and then we’ll know where he went off ta.” She stated simply and logically, patting Soldier on the arm and turning to walk down the hallway.

.

The rest of the team was sitting around the table still; Medic was fidgeting with the silverware, while Scout stared angrily at the food she wasn’t being allowed to stuff into her face. Soldier popped his head in the doorway from the hall.

“YOU LOT. EAT.” He ordered, and then disappeared back in the hallway.

Pyro practically fell out of his chair at this sudden loud interruption and was left blinking at the empty space where Soldier had been, as next to him Scout began to pile food on her plate, rapidly and messily. Sniper stared at Scout for a moment, an eyebrow raised, before taking one of the demolished plates of food from in front of Scout and serving himself. Medic sighed with exasperation and stood up, walking to the kitchen to make herself some tea. Spy followed, watching closely as she pulled out a teapot and some tea.

“ _Do you need any help with that_?” he asked her in German, his right hand twitched in an involuntary motion to grab a cigarette out of his pocket.

“ _No, do you want some tea as well?_ ” Medic asked as she filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove.

“ _Yes, if you don’t mind.”_

Medic shrugged, “ _I don’t know why I would_.”

“ _That child is going to kill me one of these days. I’m just going to die of exposure to her stupidity_.” He grumbled.

Medic smiled, _“Well, I’m not sure I can save any of us from that fate. She certainly doesn’t understand basic manners. Look at the mess she makes, leaving a trail of destruction behind her.”_

_“She doesn’t notice the way Pyro looks at her either.”_ Spy chuckled knowingly.

“ _Oh! You noticed too? Good, then I wasn’t just imagining things._ ” Medic smirked as the kettle started to screech.

Spy grabbed two cups and saucers from the top cabinet and set them down on the counter as Medic filled the teapot. She looked over and stared at them, frowning for a moment.

“ _Is something wrong_?” Spy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“ _This is going to sound ridiculous, but I had no idea that we had teacups._ ” Medic stated.

“ _What? They’ve been right here the whole time_.”

Medic reached up, on her toes, and just barely touched the top of the shelf just below where the teacups had been.

“ _I’ve been using the coffee cups._ ” She shrugged and then put her hand over her face in a gesture of embarrassed frustration.

Spy burst out laughing, which made Medic laugh at how silly the situation was as well. Medic carried the hot teapot to the table as Spy carried the teacups and put one in front of each of their plates. Scout had demolished her plate and had already started on seconds while they had been in the kitchen. Medic was almost certain by this point that Scout ate just as much, if not more, than Heavy did.


	13. In the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After dinner, Demo is still missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! Please leave comments as they are helpful and encouraging! Thank you for kudos!

After dinner the team sat quietly around the common room. Spy was reading another newspaper, this time the Известия, that he had borrowed from Heavy. Sniper and Scout were playing some sort of game that Engineer had rigged up with the television, where you controlled two little figures who ran around and fought each other. Medic still didn’t understand how it worked, even though Engineer had explained it to her several times. Not that she cared that much, she would much rather read a book.

“We have a problem.” Engineer announced as she walked into the room, Soldier trailing a little behind her, an angry glower on his face.

Everyone turned to look, sensing that something was seriously wrong.

“Demo ain’t here. He’s in the BLU base, which means they musta taken him. I reported it to the Administrator, but so far there’s been no response. So we’re takin’ matters into our own hands. Ya’ll better suit up.” Engineer ordered.

After a few seconds of blinking everyone got up and headed to the locker room, putting on their uniforms and gearing up. Finally they all stood outside as Engineer and Soldier turned to lead them on. It was dark, and Engineer’s little handheld computer lit up her face with an eerie green glow, a pulsing red dot on the screen showing her where Demo was. They all started walking towards the BLU Base quickly, Engineer leading the way. As they got closer to the base, she realized that the red dot was getting closer and closer, until they were standing right on top of it. Engineer stopped abruptly.  Medic ran into her and started to ask what was going on, before Engineer shushed her sharply. Hitting her computer and shaking it. The dot stayed where it was, only now it was moving back towards the RED Base.

“What iz going on up there?” Spy hissed, pushing past his teammates to stand next to Engineer, peering down at the computer screen.

“Uh, I’m not entirely sure.” Engineer sputtered, “It says he’s right here. Well, now it says he’s moving that-a way.” She pointed in the direction of the RED base.

They all wandered after Engineer as she followed the red dot, then she stopped, poking at the computer agitatedly.

“Maybe there’s somethin’ wrong with your little tracker there.” Sniper suggested.

“No, it matched up with the main computer before. This just don’t make no sense.” She complained, looking around. “He should be right here.”

 “Maybe he is?” Scout offered up, looking around and shrugging. “Ain’t there a bunch a tunnels under here? I run through ‘em sometimes during battles.”

Engineer slapped herself in the head. “Of course. The drainage pipes. He must be in the one below us, now we just gotta get in the pipes. Everybody look for a manhole, or a waterway!”

It took a few minutes, but Scout was the one who found the manhole. Heavy pried off the cover, sending it clanging a few meters away. Engineer climbed down first, turning on the light on her helmet, the rest followed, the only incident being Medic slipping off the ladder because of her bulky equipment, but Heavy caught her in time, so no harm there. Engineer followed the red dot on her computer screen, the others crowding behind her to try and keep in the light. Scout was whining about how dark it was and that it was freaking her out. Pyro had fallen behind a bit, and then caught up, patting Scout on the shoulder reassuringly. Scout jumped and squeaked at the unexpected contact, while everyone else shushed her. Scout grumbled quietly as Pyro’s quiet muffled laugh echoed in the tunnel. Medic yawned and grumbled to Heavy in Russian, complaining about being wet, as they were all standing in about two feet of water. Heavy grumbled back, but reassured her that they would be out soon. The faint glow of Spy lighting up a cigarette cast his shadow against the wall, strangely stretched and wobbling in the faint light. Everyone walking made the water slosh and gurgle, filling the tunnel with odd resonating echoes. A sudden loud keening yell made them all stop and draw their weapons, the hum of Medic’s medigun warming up suddenly vibrating off the walls.

“Wot was that?” Sniper whispered, squinting in the darkness, his kukri drawn.

Engineer stopped watching her computer and stepped slowly forwards into the darkness.

“nnnnNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” a loud sobbing echoed through the tunnels as a shadow appeared in front of them.

Scout was clinging to Pyro so tightly that Pyro suddenly worried about losing circulation. Heavy growled and sent his gun spinning. Medic fired up her medigun, filling the tunnel with a soft red glow, the scent of ozone and spice with a hint of burning chemicals. Spy had dropped his cigarette. Engineer and Soldier trudged forward in the murky water, towards the shadowy figure.

“Demo?” Soldier called out, stepping in front of Engineer.

“NooooooOOOOO GET AWAY FROM MEEEEeeee” Anguished screaming came from the figure as it collapsed.

Soldier ran, water splashing up as he reached Demo, hefting him up out of the water like a giant ragdoll. He had completely lost consciousness, splayed out and limp. Medic ran up, firing her medigun at him as she looked him over. There were cuts and bruises, but it didn’t seem like anything too serious. She realized suddenly that there could have been previous damage that had just been healed before he got out here. Not to mention psychological. She knew her brother was experienced with torture, and who knows what the rest of the team was capable of. She cringed.

“Let’s get him back to ze base, quickly.” She said to Engineer.

Engineer agreed. Not only did Demo need attention, but the rest of the team was getting more skittish by the minute. Scout looked like she was about to accidentally rip off Pyro’s arm the way she was clenching onto it. They were also vulnerable down here; it was the perfect place for an ambush.

“Alright ya’ll, let’s move out.” Engineer led the way, Soldier carrying the unconscious Demo, and Medic following not far behind, medigun still trained on him.


	14. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demo's recovery is going slowly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe how many people actually read my stuff?? Like wow! Thank you so much. All of you. You're awesome

Medic sat, staring at Demo, who was lying unconscious in one of the little beds in her sickbay. Soldier sat across from her, sullen and watchful. The IV in Demo’s arm dripped intermittently, it was keeping him under for now, the stress of being conscious was just too much for him, and he had a fair amount of internal bruising that the medigun wouldn’t fix, and would just have to be waited out. The limits of the medigun seemed random at times, Medic could never figure out exactly why it couldn’t heal certain things. Viruses and bacterial infections she understood to a degree, but not being able to heal bruises that were incurred outside of battle? Why could it then heal those that were gained during a battle? What was the difference? Was it specifically designed that way for a reason? What could that reason possibly be? Medic mused at this as she watched Demo’s slow breathing.

The only answer they had gotten from the Administrator about the situation had been a short reply of “Complaint noted.” It seemed that nothing else was going to be done on that end. It had made everyone uneasy. If the BLU team could get away with this, it was setting a precedent that could only lead to instability and chaos. What if things like this became a regular occurrence?

Medic sighed and pushed her glasses back up her nose, standing up and stretching before walking over to the medical storage closet and fiddling with a few of the bottles. She picked up a few and began mixing a cocktail of things in a vial, finally drawing it up into a few syringes and putting them in the refrigerator. When she went back to the bed, Demo hadn’t moved.

“You should go to bed.” She told Soldier, who shook his head, frowning.

Medic pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, grabbed a book off of her desk, and sat back down. She read through three chapters before Demo started to groggily wake up again. At first he grumbled softly, starting to twitch, then began yelling, flailing about at invisible assailants. Medic threw down her book and tried calming him down verbally while attempting to keep him down on the bed, but she ended up getting a punch in the nose for her troubles as Soldier managed to get a hold of him, trying to talk him down as well. Medic crawled away a bit as blood streamed down her face, then stood up to go get one of the syringes. By the time she got back Demo had managed to tear out his IV port and was grappling blindly with Soldier on the floor, sobbing hysterically and shrieking.

“Hold him down! I need his arm!” she instructed as Soldier wrestled the incoherent Scotsman.

He managed to keep him still for long enough that Medic was able to inject him with the syringe. He kept fighting for a few more seconds, and then lay still, panting and looking around wildly at Soldier and Medic. Soldier was straddling him; holding down his arms as Medic knelt nearby, observing him.

“They’re monsters. They’re….” Demo managed to whine before passing out again.

Medic grimaced. She didn’t know what they’d done to him, but the trauma might have been too much. It could have permanently altered his mental state.

“Vell, help me get him back in ze bed.” She sighed. “Ve had better strap him down.”

The next few days went on like this, Demo either being comatose or awake and fighting against the straps holding him down, until Medic managed to get the dosage of the tranquilizer down to a manageable level. Demo lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, as Medic sat beside him, trying to talk to him.

“How are you feeling?”

“Are you hungry?”

Again, silence. Well, this didn’t seem to be going anywhere, he was either ignoring her or had blocked out her presence. She made a few notes on her clipboard and walked back to her desk. A few minutes later Soldier came through the door, a plate piled with the leftovers of breakfast in one hand and a newspaper in the other. He went over to Demo’s bed, trying to offer him food and something to read, but he had just about as much luck as Medic had. He left the food and newspaper on the bedside table and stormed back toward the Medical Bay doors. Before he left he stopped, grumbling something to himself and turned on Medic.

“This is your fault!”

“Vhat?” Medic stood up, incredulous.

“You must not even be a doctor. Look at him, he’s broken! It’s your job to keep the team in top physical condition!”

Medic growled, “It’s not his body, it’s his mind. I’m not a psychologist. You can’t just heal a mind as easily as you can a broken bone. It’s not zat simple.”

“Oh so you’re turning against your own team now, eh? I knew never to trust you damn foreigners.”

“VHAT? I am trying to help him!” Medic stepped around her desk, glowering up at the angry American.

Soldier suddenly yelled and grabbed Medic by the lapels of her vest, shoving her against the desk. “YOU GODDAMN NAZI YOU’VE BEEN PLANNING THIS SINCE YOU GOT HERE. YOU AND THAT BLU BROTHER OF YOURS OVER THERE.”

“Du bist ein dummkoft, I HATE mein bruder. Vhy vould I ever do zhat. And vhy vould I hurt Demo, he’s never done anysing to mich.” Medic hissed.

“HOW SHOULD I KNOW I’M AN AMERICAN AND AMERICANS DON’T TORTURE PEOPLE.”

Medic rolled her eyes, about to correct him, but before she could say anything, Soldier suddenly pushed her hard, sending her sprawling on the floor. As she lifted herself up she growled at the slight pain and stared up at Soldier, who was now pointing a pistol at her. She scoffed.

“Vhat are you going to do? Shoot me? You know zhat von’t do any good.”

“No, it really won’t” came a voice from the doorway.

They both looked over. Sniper was standing there, arms crossed across his chest as he glared at Soldier.

“This is just what the BLUs want, us turnin’ on each other. Maybe you should think of that the next time you start questioning loyalties.”

Soldier growled, mumbling obscenities as he holstered his pistol and stormed out of the Medical Bay. Medic groaned as she pushed herself up off of the floor. Sniper walked towards her.

“You alright there?”

“Ja, ja. Just a little bruised.”

He reached out a hand to help her up.  Medic stared at him for a moment before taking the offered hand and allowing him to help her up off the floor.

“What a nutter.” Sniper commented.

“He’s just vorried about Demo.” Medic replied, rubbing her arm and looking over at bed where Demo was still staring at the ceiling.

“Me too, but you don’t see me pointing a gun at anyone,” he grumbled, “Well, anyone who’s not wearing blue.”

Medic sighed, going back to her desk as Sniper went over to Demo. The Scotsman’s face was completely blank, staring unblinkingly at the ceiling. He wondered what it would take to snap him out of it. What had they done to him over there to leave him this much of a wreck? He glanced at Medic, guessing that she probably had a good idea. There didn’t seem to be anything he could do for him, so he got up to leave.

Medic looked from her paperwork as he left, giving him a quick sad smile. There didn’t seem to be much else she could do for Demo at this point either. She turned off the main lights of the Medical Bay, checking on Demo again before she left, and went to bed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always comments are wonderful and I love seeing what you thought :)

**Author's Note:**

> If you would like to keep up with the RED team's shenanigans and bother them with questions or whatever else, you should visit their blog here: http://ourredteam.tumblr.com/


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